My first full day in Colorado Springs yesterday was a good one, my body clock as expected woke me up at 6am, but a real treat to wake up to blue skies and 75 degrees temperatures, it sure beats the snow the previous two years here!
Category Archives: Exclusives
Battle in the Rockies – Day 1
Yesterday I made the long trip out to the annual Battle in the Rockies contest this year being held in James Mcgraw’s hometown in beautiful Monument, Colorado. After a pretty smooth flight out to Denver, I was greeted by James telling me to held it right there, he wanted a photo of me above the immigration sign. It was a welcome sight after a long day travelling to already by greeted by a joking, hyperactive McGraw. Somethings never change, and perhaps they shouldn’t.
The trip from Denver to Colorado Springs is around an hour, I wanted to get a taste of America right away so we headed to what James called Donald Trump’s favourite restaurant “Five Guys”, and discussed the week ahead. Unlike previous years I have been here, there is no snow at the moment, and it’s 70 degrees, blue skies with amazing views of the rockies all around.
After dropping bags and stuff, we headed to James’ work aka the Tintadome where he also rides after opening hours. James got a session in, it was awesome to see what James is working on outside of his contest runs. I built my bike whilst we also waited for Bill Nitschke to arrive who funnily enough left at the exact same time of me 12:30 UK time, 8:30 his time, making the 1000 mile drive from Indianpolis. Pure beast mode!
I was lagging by the time Bill arrived, we grabbed a few beers and called it a night.
Stay tuned for updates daily.
-E
Landscapes Review
Review: Effraim.
DVD’s in the modern era are a sad rarity in our scene from my perspective, during the last two years you can count those on less than one hand. Dane Beardsley’s Same thing daily project and IGI’s travel video are all we have had. Stewart Munro from Australia stepped up to the plate with an ambitious project to collect and edit together rider sections from all the planet, when you think about that in the modern internet culture and free edits available everyday it almost seems like a thankless task.
Thankfully Stewart stuck to the task which being so far away from all the other riders is I can imagine a tough task to collate together. The downloadable video straight to your laptop is catching on in other sports such as Skateboarding, more recently massive companies such as Adidas are releasing their projects for a small fee online. Will it catch on to what is essentially a small flatland audience? Only time will tell…
FlatDev Photogallery Part 2 by Schogn Lee
Yesterday we featured part 1 of Schogn Lee’s amazing photo gallery from Flatdev 2016, today we feature part 2 with lesser known names as well as the Pros (thanks to Schogn for help identifying riders). Enjoy the awesome photographs!
No handed teakettle by Mohamad Shafeeq b Fathurrahman.
Flat Dev Photogallery Part 1 by Schogn Lee
They say a photograph can say a thousand words, check out this awesome Part 1 photogallery that Schogn Lee kindly sent in from Round 5 of the World Circuit at FlatDEv in Malaysia.
Matthias Dandois, locked in on his way to a first place finish at stop 5 of the 2016 World Circuit.
Repo: UK Flatland Championships
Text: Effraim.
Photos: Matti Hemmings.
Nothing but good vibes this past weekend at the UK Flatland Championships in Birmingham. I made the trip up by train on the Friday, with just one change at Southampton, the train is on the doorstep to the Birmingham NEC venue.
When I arrived Matti was already dialled in with banners set up, PA ready, just the floor to clean again, and judging sheets to organise which I was one of my jobs to do. I’m still injured so I watched as Matti, TGM Maz and Chris Brook enjoyed an empty floor. Mario wanted to arrive early and get used to the fast floor, and even learnt a nice new line, flail boomerang to hang 5, looking forward to seeing how he develops that move. in the future. Chris coasted no footed manuals across the floor with ease and Matti who was suffering with a bad back was working on stemrollers.
UK Flat Champs @ Cycle Show Day 1
Yesterday was Day 1 of the UK Flat Champs for myself, Matti Hemmings already made the trip on Thursday to set up the arena, organise banners etc, so when I arrived there wasn’t a great deal this year for me to do unlike Wheels and Finns Festival, the floor is dialled so we are ready to go!
The NEC is an amazing set up where you can fly or catch the train and land on the door step, quite literally!
TGM Maz, Chris Brook, and Matti had a lil’ fun session in between much banter, don’t think I have laughed that much in a long time, check below for a few snaps I took. Expert flatland is on today from 1-3pm, Pros Sunday, will be back later with another update!
Good times here at the NEC!
Chris Brook, no footed manual.
Organiser, Matti Hemmings throwing down some whiplashes.
TGM Maz, carved hitch.
Wheels & Finns Festival Day 3
What an epic weekend over at the Wheels and Finns Festival in Joss Bay, Kent. After two days at the event, most of the hard work was done. We woke up to blue skies, and with the festival being so close to the beach, meant only one thing. Chilled breakfast on the beach, before the day really got started!
Wheels & Finns Festival – Day 2
Day 2 here at the Wheels and Finns Festival in Joss Bay, Kent. It’s been a really long day for myself and Matti Hemmings, up at 6 am to resheet the flatland area. When we arrived on Friday, the floor was just one sheet thick on scaffolding board. When riders rode the floor, the floor would ripple as they rode.
Matti arranged to get some extra 16mm sheets to place underneath the existing top surface, after 4 long hours of solid work we managed to get two sheets on the area, with triple the amount of screws previously. And with the help of the workmen on site, we were able to jack up one end of the flatland area to improve how flat the area was. (see image below).
Wheels and Finns Festival Day 1
Myself and Matti Hemmings made the trip to the beautiful seaside town, Joss Bay in Kent today to set up for the weekend here at the Wheels and Finns Festival.